The last word in spelling flames!
Chuq Von Rospach
I have found what I think is a great quote to keep in mind the next time
you want to flame someone for bad spelling:
You can't help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he
doesn't spell it right; but spelling isn't everything. There are days
when spelling Tuesday simply doesn't count.
- Piglet, about Owl
Winnie-The_Pooh by A.A. Milne
He has a point. There ARE days when spelling Tuesday doesn't count, like
Wednesday, Thursday... What really needs to happen is for BOTH sides to
work a little bit. Flamers, be a bit more patient with those of us who
misspell (or mistype) on occasion. For those of you who have lots of
trouble with spelling (and grammar, for that matter), please work on it!
You can have the best idea in the world, but if you can't express it, it
isn't worth anything. I for one promise not to yell or laugh at you, as
long as you promise to try, because the only way to proper usage of the
language is (to quote a famous author) 'practice, practice, practice'.
People who haven't read A.A. Milne have missed a real treat by the way. Not
only are they very enjoyable stories (look for Winnie-The-Pooh and The
House and Pooh Corner in your local Childrens section), but Milne has
installed a very interesting and useful philosophy of life into the books
(you can pick up the book 'The Tao of Pooh' by Benjamin Hoff, which
discusses the books in some detail. Very well done!)
--
-- Diogenes looked in and laughed--
From the dungeons of the warlock Chuqui the Plaid
Note the new address: {fortune,menlo70}!nsc!chuqui
~And as I lived my role I swore I'd sell my soul for one love
who would stand by me and give me back the gift of laughter~
- Winslow Leech
Andy Tannenbaum
and "The house at Pooh Corner," but he neglects the A.A. Milne works
that I love much more, his two books of poems, "When We were Very
Young" and "Now we are Six." The poems are wonderful, and so are the
illustrations. They make great reading when your head's spinning at
work.
Andy Tannenbaum Masscomp Inc Westford MA (617) 692-6200 x274
ne...@denelcor.uucp
You can't help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he
doesn't spell it right; but spelling isn't everything. There are days
when spelling Tuesday simply doesn't count.
- Piglet, about Owl
Winnie-The_Pooh by A.A. Milne
Speaking for myself, a few misspelled words are no problem. The "(sp?)"
that says to me "I don't know if I spelled this word right or not and you
aren't worth looking it up for." is pretty damned offensive.
My real flame though is for "The Tao of Pooh". I loved Milne and still do
so I picked up tToP, hoping for some more of the charm of Pooh--WRONG!!!
The first two chapters were ok, pretty condescending but ok. From there,
the author seems to take the position that the essence of Tao is to heap
scorn on anyone who isn't "pure" (or whatever) enough for him. Even
Rabbit--the most unsympathetic character that Milne was capable of
creating--deserves better than the handling he got here.
I confess that I don't know Tao--maybe the author's position is correct.
If so, I want no part. In any case, I think Milne's heirs should sue for
"character assassination".
Ahhhhhhhhhhh, That feels better.
Regards,
Neal Weidenhofer
Denelcor, Inc.
<hao|csu-cs|brl-bmd>!denelcor!neal
ami...@ihuxq.uucp
You can't help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he
doesn't spell it right; but spelling isn't everything. There are days
when spelling Tuesday simply doesn't count.
- Piglet, about Owl
Winnie-The_Pooh by A.A. Milne
Neal Weidenhofer states:
>> Speaking for myself, a few misspelled words are no problem.
>> The "(sp?)" that says to me "I don't know if I spelled this
>> word right or not and you aren't worth looking it up for."
>> is pretty damned offensive.
As a semi-regular user of this practice, I want to defend it. Yes,
when I put "(sp?)" after a word, I do mean "I don't know if I
spelled this word right or not", however, I do not mean to imply
that the reader isn't worth my looking it up. I am just
acknowledging my uncertainty so that the reader doesn't say "look at
that stupid fool, can't even spell pneumonia" (I can, it's just that
the "k" on my terminal sticks). Does it ever occur to you that I
might not have a dictionary handy?
John Hobson
AT&T Bell Labs
Naperville, IL
(312) 979-7293
ihnp4!ihuxq!amigo2
Chuq Von Rospach
>My real flame though is for "The Tao of Pooh". I loved Milne and still do
>so I picked up tToP, hoping for some more of the charm of Pooh--WRONG!!!
>The first two chapters were ok, pretty condescending but ok. From there,
>the author seems to take the position that the essence of Tao is to heap
>scorn on anyone who isn't "pure" (or whatever) enough for him. Even
>Rabbit--the most unsympathetic character that Milne was capable of
>creating--deserves better than the handling he got here.
TToP is not perfect. No book of Philosophy is, even when written by
experts. Benjamin Hoff is no expert, and there are times when he stretches
a point in an attempt to prove it. Now, having said all of this, why do I
like this book anyway? For me at least, this book gave me some new insights
into a favorite character of mine in literature. I also feel that the
negative characterizations of Piglet, Rabbit, and Eeyore were a little
overdone, but if you look, Hoff ignored the other positive character -
there is essentially no discussion of Christopher Robin at all! What this
tells me is that he saw Pooh as a vision of Taoist perfection (if such can
truly exist) and wrote the book in a very black/white orientation. Since he
didn't want to impact the perfection of the Simply Little Bear, he ignored
any positive features of the other characters (and ignored Robin
completely, since he is another white character). I DO believe the Pooh can
be construed as a Taoist construct (I don't know if A.A.Milne designed it
that way, however). I don't believe that the other characters are examples
of Taoist mistakes, and I think that is where Hoff blows it by trying to
force them to be so.
>I confess that I don't know Tao--maybe the author's position is correct.
>If so, I want no part. In any case, I think Milne's heirs should sue for
>"character assassination".
I have done some study of Eastern religions in my earlier days, so the
basic tenets of Taoism (and the other vinegar samplers) are familiar to me.
For someone used to Christian based religions there are a large number of
differences that are not easy to assimilate. The major difference is trying
to remember that Eastern religions are actually better defined as
'Teachings of Life' instead of 'Teachings of God'. This gives them the
dubious honor of predating Miss Manners by a few millenia. Eastern religion
also seems (to me) to try to teach a reliance on self, while Christion
religions tend to emphasize a reliance upon God. I am NOT going to get into
a discussion of the pro's and con's of religions, since the only
requirement for a religion is that it works for YOU!
Anyway, I have linked this discussion into net.books, because if it is
going to shift away from spelling onto tToP, it probably belongs there. If
you want to followup on this further, please remember to remove net.flame
from the distribution.
chuq
--
From the house at Pooh Corner: Chuq (a Silly Old Bear)
{fortune,menlo70}!nsc!chuqui
have you hugged your Pooh today?
The difficult we gave up on yesterday, the impossible we are giving up on now.
E. A. Flinn
a collection of literary criticism that is a parody of college
literature texts - heavy plot analysis, character analysis, lots of
Freudian implications. Very funny.
ph...@amd70.uucp
the spelling of a word. I find that if I see a word spelled incorrectly
often enough, like "kernal", I start to accept it as correct and in
that sense I prefer the use of (sp).
--
Phil Ngai (408) 988-7777 {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra,intelca}!amd70!phil